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The following is an editorial by NAA President and CEO Caroline H. Little.

The sky is always falling and newspapers are always dying.

For more than a decade, that has been a common and constant refrain. While working at washingtonpost.com, the Guardian US, and now, the Newspaper Association of America, I have been asked frequently about the state of the industry as people search for the worst.

Though newspaper media is enjoying the largest audiences ever as well as continuing to play a unique and critical role in our communities, there is one fact that always tends to be obscured or outright ignored – newspapers are still making money and newspapers remain a good investment.

A year ago at this time, John Henry and Jeff Bezos made high-profile acquisitions of The Boston Globe and The Washington Post, respectively, which confirmed that newspapers are viable investment options with the ability to grow. Earlier this month, The Washington Post announced record web traffic for July as well as hiring more than 60 people in the first seven months of the year.

A company hiring 60 people in seven months sounds like a healthy one to me.

This summer, the newspaper industry has seen a wave of spin-offs, with Tribune and Gannett both forming publishing-only companies. E.W. Scripps and Journal Communications spun their combined publications off into a new company, Journal Media Group. This is an exciting time for the newspaper industry as these companies will now devote their undivided attention to their publications.

However, as with the investments last year, these spin-offs have been spun into more gloom and doom for the industry. It is simply not accurate.

In fact, buried in the depths of one particular article that signaled the death of newspapers is this gem of a sentence: “Newspapers continue to generate cash and solid earnings.”

Think about that for a moment – an industry that generates cash and solid earnings is on its death bed? I refuse to accept that.

What is true is our industry’s business model has changed dramatically in the past half-dozen years. In 2007, 80% of newspaper media revenue was generated from advertising. In 2013, less than half of total revenue (46%) was from advertising in the daily and Sunday print newspaper. Revenue from readers paying for print and digital news and information accounted for nearly three out of ten revenue dollars, up from less than two in ten in 2007. Income from new, non-traditional sources is now rising rapidly.

What is also true is that the public’s thirst for news keeps rising.

Data from the digital measurement firm comScore show that 161 million people visited newspaper websites in the month of March. We are witnessing audience increases across the country, from the aforementioned Washington Post to The Times-Picayune, which announced 5.6 million unique visitors to NOLA.com this July.

There is more demand than ever for news and journalism. There are also more competitors. There was no BuzzFeed or Facebook or Huffington Post 15 years ago. New digital channels offer consumers a dazzling array of options, all of which compete for time and attention. And advertisers face challenges in trying to catch up to these fragmenting audiences.

In my three years as CEO of NAA, I have witnessed an amazing transformation. Newspaper companies look drastically different in 2014 compared to 2011. There has been an increased focus on digital properties. Newspaper reporters and columnists have taken advantage of Twitter to build brands and large readerships. Innovation on the design side has led to beautiful works of long-form journalism, which include The Unforgotten by the Boston Globe and Breaking Ball from The Wall Street Journal that ran in July. Newspaper companies are using the power of their brands to create new, non-traditional streams of revenues from event hosting to digital marketing.

The evolution of the newspaper industry continues every day. The explosion of mobile readership thanks to smartphones and tablets has caused newspapers to create new mobile strategies. There is increasing demand from readers for more targeted content, which has given rise to niche sites and blogs developed by newspapers devoted to special areas of interest, such as food, high school sports and fashion.

For me and many in the newspaper industry, it is a fascinating and exhilarating time. We are in the midst a dramatic, historic shift for an industry that has been around as long as the United States of America.

The world has changed and newspapers have changed. The notion of what a newspaper company is should change for the general public. It is no longer simply about print. It is about all platforms. People don’t think, “I’m reading the newspaper” when scrolling through nytimes.com but they should.

Despite all the changes, one thing remains the same – newspapers still make money.

The holiday season is here again and local retail businesses are gearing up for what is likely to be the busiest, most profitable time of year. The National Retail Federation (NRF) has determined that the holiday season can account for anywhere from 20 to 40 percent of a retailer’s annual sales. The recent NRF report says that sales for the months of November and December will increase marginally by 3.9 percent to $602.1 billion from the same time last year.

Overall growth sounds great but another tidbit in the report that may affect traditional retailers is that the average shopper will spend more of their budget online. The NRF survey revealed that the average person will complete about 39.5 percent of their shopping on retail and other company websites, up from 38.8 percent last year and the highest amount in the survey’s history. That’s great if you have an online store. Not so great if you are a traditional brick and mortar.

Today’s Holiday Shoppers

According to NRF, holiday shoppers fine tune their skills each holiday season in order to maneuver the stores, discover the best deals and perfect their hassle-free shopping experience. When it comes to decisions like where to shop, price and promotions are top-of-mind. According to the survey, 35.6 percent said the most important factor in deciding where to shop are offers for sales and discounts, along with 16.4 percent who say the most important factor is selection of merchandise and 13.6 percent who say it’s quality of merchandise.

How can local retailers compete with online stores?

The first thing any local retailer can do is just to be cognizant of this shopper behavior. Then determine your store’s position in that equation. If you carry merchandise that is readily available online, you might want to consider competing on price. “Show rooming” is a common shopper behavior that involves customers visiting your store to check out a product then going online via their mobile device to comparison shop – often while they are in your store! If they find it at a lower price online, they’ll simply leave and order it online. If you’re ok with being a showroom for online retailers, that’s fine. But you could be losing sales if your price doesn’t beat the online price plus shipping.

You can also position the unique quality and selection of products available at your store. Shoppers are looking for selection and quality so if you’ve got one-of-a-kind, rare, unique gift items or a large selection of anything, promote it. If you can add value by offering a hassle-free experience including short lines, free and ample parking and extended hours do that too.

Local Advertising Gives Small Business an Edge

Online retailers rely on search to drive web traffic. It’s their best tactic and it works by driving shoppers who are ready to buy a specific product to their website. But what about “browsers”? Those are the shoppers who don’t know what they want and are looking for ideas. This is where local retailers can make the suggestion AND close the sale. This way you catch them BEFORE they go online. We already know that shoppers are looking for deals, selection, quality and a hassle-free experience. Can you offer this? If so, tell everyone in your local market with a traditional ad campaign.

The most effective and affordable advertising opportunities for small, local retailers are still local newspapers, magazines and market-based websites. These venues provide a broad reach into the local market without overreaching. With the right message, one that offers competitive prices and convenience, or a wide selection of unique gift ideas, you can reach today’s seasoned, savvy shoppers while they’re still looking for ideas.

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If you are interested driving Marin shoppers to your store during the holidays, check out our holiday print and online packages designed to reach our largest segment of the Marin County audience.